


Seeds

by Forthebuns



Series: Passionfruit [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BuryMeAtMakeOutCreek.mp4, Canon Non-Binary Character, Fluff, Jiraiya is stupid stupid, Mutual Pining, Orotsu but it's platonic, Other, Tsunade is tired, Useless Gays, but if tsunade wants it....she'll get it.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 11:17:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18151157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forthebuns/pseuds/Forthebuns
Summary: “.....what?”“What?” Oro echos with a slight motion of their head.“What?”  He tries again, desperately trying to connect the dots.





	Seeds

**Author's Note:**

> Hey :^). Alternative title is Cut. Jiraiya is nice to write when he's a big soft dummy. Also Pray for Tsunade. I listened to First Love/Late Spring by Mitski while finishing writing this and you should too.

“I can’t.”

“Well, you can’t walk around with it like th-“

“I _can’t_.”

Tsunade quiets at how their voice thickened, practically watching the depressing cocktail of emotions pour off Orochimaru from where she sat behind them. They’ve been in the middle of her kitchen floor for hours at this point, more accurately around six and night quickly came upon them as hope for the situation grew thin. She sits back, knocking a few jars and bottles of products and a brush or two out of the way, knowing that the rest of the floor is much more cluttered than the spot they occupied now. She reaches forward after a moment, touching singed, melted, fused chunks of black hair. A lab accident, an easily avoidable mistake by a colleague if they had just remembered to clean up and shut down behind themselves. Oro didn’t know what the exact solution was but knows it could have been much worse if their hair wasn’t pulled up, essentially protecting their neck.

This isn’t ‘just hair’ for them. They can’t just hack it off and continue like nothing happened. Mourning, Tsunade thinks, knowing that a Oros entire life is --was here. Over a decade of remembrance and routine, the only time a blade was introduced was just to keep it at exactly twenty six inches in length,the same as their mother and the same it will always be. But now…..

Tsunade sits up, wiping her hands on her sweatpants tiredly. More so absolute exhaustion but Oro is her best friend, someone she’d consider going to the ends of the earth for. Keyword is consider because she still has her limits and as a friend, it’s time to let them know where it’s at, despite their limits seeming infinite and absurd. Also, delivering some painful truth right now won’t kill them anymore than today already has.

She runs her hands thru their hair, stopping and hovering less than an inch above their shoulders, fingers impeded by the melt that creeped up the strands.

“...she wouldn’t want you to keep it like this.” She speaks softly, voice still overcoming the variety show they were supposed to be watching on her laptop but now faded into background noise. “I can’t do anything else but….you can. You have to decide what to do now. And know she won’t hate you over this.” She can feel knots forming in their shoulders as she speaks, easily smoothing them away, an effect she’s always had.

“I know you’re just scared to decide, it’s not that you can’t.” Tsunade fixes their hair into a tight bun at the back, concealing most of the damage for now.

“But you can take time to do that later, right now we’re gonna have another sleepover, we could both use a couple drinks and some rest.” She sighs out, hugging them from behind. Oro seems to relax, scrubbing a hand down from the side of their face to cover their mouth, still thinking way too hard for Tsunade’s liking.

“Listen~ we can watch trash tv and talk about how the other day I saw Jiraiya staring at you-“ There was suddenly an effort to shrug her off their shoulder.

“You need glasses, your eyes have clearly gone to shit.”

There it is, Tsunade thinks with a wry smile, pulling herself up from the floor to start cleaning up “You’re the one who needs em, I know what I saw.”

There’s a low ‘ugh’ and the sound of bottle and brushes being collected off the floor from behind her and she scoffs “Fiiiiine, I'll leave you in denial."

The night passes easier than the day in a revolution of glass bottles, game shows and declined offers of bets on relationship status. (She has to stop running her pots on this, it’s never going to happen, they think.) They both finally settle down around three or four am, sprawled on her bed waiting for alcohol and sleep to take them right over the edge, a muted tv flashing its lights across the room as it played some late night show.

“Tsu-chan…” Oro speaks with eyes closed, breaking a silence that seemed to last forever.

“Mh?” Her response is muffled by a pillow she’s thrown over her face

“....Thank you.”

“Hm….of course…...Oro-chii?”

“Yes?”

“..make sure you give me back my clothes if you’re leaving today. Tired of you taking my shit.”

“Ah…..we’ll see.” Oro is disappointed she remembered, they were thinking of taking the blue crop top they were borrowing for the night.

“I’m serious, I want my fucking juicy sweatpants back.” She lets out a little snort that erupts into giggles as they make a genuinely confused ‘huh?’ noise.

\------------------------------

Jiraiya doesn’t like short hair.

That’s...not entirely correct, he actually prefers long hair, short hair isn’t a deal breaker (he has very few of those) it’s just...not his first choice.

It’s easy to guess it comes from his crush on Tsunade that spanned the majority of their childhood and eventually found its way to many, many other girls. It’s just there’s one detail that always escaped the guesses and speculation as he got older and narrowed the rest of his preferences down to a fine, whittled point that it presents itself now.

He always preferred black to blonde.

Tsunade found that out years ago and has never let him live it down since, financially or emotionally.

When he heard about what happened, he felt….pain for them, of course, but also an odd sense of relief. It sounds terrible, and of course Jiraiya cares about his friend- just his friend- and can’t even begin to think about how much this is affecting them. But….these feelings and...thoughts that he doesn’t know how to deal with hovering over him throughout his twenties might be put to an end. He’s horrible, he knows, but now Jiraiya can focus on JUST his friend without his own head or all that hair getting in the way. And maybe getting some of his money back from Tsunade in the process.

Jiraiya is going to hell for this one.

More important than his emotional crisis , neither he or Tsunade haven’t seen or heard from them in a week, no texts, calls--already extremely rare--, nothing. It’s not entirely uncommon for them to just fall off the face of the earth for a while but they both know better after being around Oro for almost two decades.

“They have a key to my place but they haven’t been by…” she speaks into her fingers steepled in front of her worry etched face.

“You gave them a key?”

“Yeah? Cuz they’re always here. Are you jealous?” Her eyes dart over to him as she lowers her hands to reveal a growing smile.

“Don’t.” He knows where she’s going with this, already sensing that faux innocent smile she always pulls out when she’s about to pry into him. Or make him feel like a dumbass. Or both.

But before she can even begin to rip right into his ego, there’s the sound of a door opening, keys jingling and some possibly very expensive shoes being kicked off

“Speak...of the goddamn devil!!” She flips around, knees digging into her couch. Tsunade doesn’t even see them yet and is already equal parts relieved, excited and pissed. It’s not a good emotional cocktail for anyone involved.

“Where the fuck have you been?? It’s been a whole week and you have the nerve to ghost me?”

“Us.” Jiraiya speaks up

“Us!! But mostly me!!!”

There’s a low ‘ugh’, Jiraiya guessing annoyance that they haven’t even been here for a full minute and they’re already getting yelled at. He holds back a short laugh.

Which quickly dies all together in his throat.

It’s gone, is the first thing he thinks, seeing hair somehow blacker and thicker--Jiraiya is a writer for a living and the fact he can’t find a goddamn synonym for the word luscious because he’ll be damned he even THINKS that word about them ever again is making him want to commit--than before now hovering a very clean, precise inch above their shoulders. He doesn’t even remember them walking into the goddamn living room, they just appear and Jiraiya...stops.

He didn’t really know what to expect, honestly. He’s just used to their hair being a sea of black that took over them, moving with and without them at times, uncontrollable by anyone but Oro. It was something apart of them that was so undeniably Orochimaru that it’s hard thinking of them without all that hair. But the black sea didn’t disappear, it was just in a different form, no longer concealing but just as untamable, all sharp edges and straight lines now, so much shorter than before but still a constant, all consuming motion.

It no longer swallows them whole but it seems to reach out for something else.

Jiraiya is stuck in his head, not remembering when Tsunade jumped up, compliments pouring out of her mouth just to stick her hands in their hair which easily swallows her fingers into the black.

There’s jealousy in him and he knows where it came from.

“Jiraiya, stop drooling and say something.” She hisses across the room at him, ignoring Oros protests to pull her ‘baby hands’ out of their head. Then he’s looking into snake eyes, and… it’s an expectant look. Intense nonetheless, maybe even more than before. But they want to hear what he has to say, even though his opinion on fashion and styling is as good as trash to them most days.

“Uh..” he doesn’t remember when this nervousness started creeping over him, or when his heart picked up.

“It looks great.” There’s an equally shaky laugh because really? Is that the best he’s got?? Apparently, yeah it is, he doesn’t know what's eating him alive suddenly.

They cock their head, hair easily shifting to the side without the extra weight of length in one fluid motion, barely skirting their shoulders. He sees how their body follows with the movement, something that would’ve been hidden by inches of black.

“Seriously….it fits you.” Closer, better, but no cigar.

Tsunade fills in by gagging “God, you suck.” And goes right back to putting her hands on everything above Oros neck, effectively smothering them and speaking a mile a minute.

Jiraiya buries himself in his phone, not doing a damn thing but needing a moment to sort out whatever the fuck is going on in his head.

It doesn’t make sense. He’s supposed to be cool and calm and indifferent because the hair is gone, his whole basis of these dreams --he does NOT want to talk about those--and emotions is gone and yet he’s feeling dumber and sweaty and…

It wasn’t the hair. It was never that, he realizes, grabbing another glance, watching Oro keep Tsunade's hands at bay in protest of her ruining their hair and face. He takes them in as a whole, something he’s never done before, seeing the entire person uninhibited and revealed before him and realizes the hair was his made up buffer this whole time, keeping himself in denial about what this was really about and what he really wanted and felt.

Jiraiya is going to lose his mind….and all his money.

\------------------------------

Orochimaru loved their parents equally, which, by an only child's standards, is entirely dependent on which parent is going to say the word ‘yes’ first. It's a narrow example but they were five at the time of the memories, running between the two of them to find which would let them eat their weight in sugar, messily paw through their fathers medical books that they swore they fully understood--They could digest more of it than an average five year old but it was the Latin they couldn't parse out just yet--or do something that a child should absolutely not be doing. Their father was more likely to say yes, sometimes easier to send Oro on their way into enlightenment or destruction and learn from it but mostly because he could never properly say no to them. He wasn’t a weak man, Oro knew that even then, but he was soft around them and spoiled them much to future dismay. Their mother, on the other hand, was truly their heart...despite always making a point to tell them no and explaining the decline to most of their requests, and why they were never allowed to climb the bookshelves for things out of reach. Despite their need to rebel, they were the same, a unique brand of defiance wrapped neatly in personal rules and morals. Maybe a little too vain and on the nose for some, but those were traits they loved the most about her and took unto themselves. Traits and mannerisms Oro guarded so carefully and refused to be let ripped from them like how she was ripped from this world.

It was around 12 when Oro decided they wanted to grow their hair out, their reasoning of wanting to look like their mother innocent enough. Oro also wanted to dress different and act...well... _different_. Looking back, their parents knew, they’d always known Oro was never going to fit into some arbitrary mold. Their father, while sometimes confused for their requests of increasingly more feminine clothing, he'd always accept. Not because it was easier but if this is what Oro wanted to explore, he definitely wasn't going to stunt any kind of learning or growth of a child learning who they are. It sounded purely textbook but Oro knew the emotion he held underneath. If their father was a calm, gentle flame of support, their mother was, surprisingly, the inferno. She was a tenured professor with a broad range of degrees and yet, she was willing to physically fight any parent that so much as looked at them oddly or were bold enough to negatively comment. Oro didn't doubt that she would have not only won any fight but also could easily wipe any consequence of it from her hands. That's... one thing they picked up from her in particular. But she loved them, just as they were, aggressively and thankfully without suffocation but with just as much public embarrassment. All the way up to the end. Oro wishes they both could see the person they are now.

And maybe that's why this is so hard. But...it's what makes this easier too.

Relief was instant the moment they set the heavy scissors down. It still bothered them since it was choppy, uneven; obviously done too quickly. But it was done.

It was gone.

And it was good.

Oro leaves the bathroom just like that, off kilter but still very much alive after two full days building up to this. Before they know it, they’ve collapsed onto their bed, knowing they should make an appointment with someone to make their hair a bit more….presentable, but unable to find any energy to even think about it. They haven’t even cleaned up the chunks of hair that covered the bathroom floor. But...it can be done in time. They have the rest of this week to themselves so everything, the overthinking, the appointments, the dealing with this flood of emotions and grief all over again, can be done in time. Tsunade’s advice of getting rest sounds better with every second and soon they’re burrowing under layers of sheets and comforters.

(Looking back, it was maybe a little rash to turn off their phone for an entire week, but they wanted some peace and quiet and they sure as hell got it)

\------------------------------

“You’ve been acting funny.” There’s a click of metal against ceramic punctuating the words, effectively dragging Jiraiya from staring out the window.

“Shit….sorry” the apology is low and muffled behind a hand, glancing at Orochimaru's face, before ducking his head as they spoon egg custard into their mouth. That’s why he brought them here, a new cafe with more egg based dishes than he can count. At least, that’s what Jiraiya told them why he brought them with. But it’s not out of the ordinary for them to do this, it’s kind of been a thing for them to go out together for the last two years. He’s the one who usually plans it and they always show up and that’s enough because he likes seeing them. Catching up and being...friends. Maybe there’s something deeper, there’s _definitely_ something deeper.

This time though, he isn’t sure why he asked them to come. Besides the eggs. It’s off because he’s usually the one talking about anything and everything and now he can’t find a single word. What was he going to say? What does he _want_ to say?

“What are you thinking about that you’re so distracted?” They easily speak around the spoon in their mouth, drawing his attention back to them. “Girls?”

There’s a soft snort from him and he relaxes, pushing his muddled thoughts to the back of his mind “No, I wish.”

“Boys?” He sees the spoon again, and watches it gently press into the soft custard. He silently shakes his head at their words though.

“Others?” That one elicits a confused sound from Jiraiya, an odd look as well.

“Like me?” He...didn’t hear the word like preceding, so in the middle of taking a sip of tea,he chokes and all his thoughts come rushing forward again. Oro doesn’t move beyond raising an eyebrow before it melts into a soft breath of a laugh. He wonders….if because of that reaction they know something.

“....glad you think me choking to death is funny.” Jiraiya coughs out the words

“Drama queen.” They bite back effortlessly while finishing off the custard, taking a moment to tuck locs of their short hair behind their ear, a flash of long gold earrings greeting him. And Jiraiya remembers what he wanted to say

“Uhm….I honestly think I was brain dead a week ago or something, but” He grins, genuinely, something he couldn’t do last time ”..I think your mom would like it. Your hair.”

It’s their turn to get lost in their thoughts for a few moments, staring at the spoon they held silently. It felt like forever for Jiraiya, thoroughly convinced he’d fucked up, smiling out of embarrassment now.

“I think so too.” Oro finally says, setting the spoon down “...I see them both sometimes. In my face, my reflection--not actual ghosts of my parents, god...” They scoff at Jiraiyas face “It’s weird, I’ve never noticed before. Everyone’s always said that and it’s not bad but….”

Then, they look up at him, meeting his eyes “What do you see?”

It caught him off guard, because he knows there’s something else in that question, he can hear it in their voice. They’re asking for a response to something completely different layered within. So he answers them.

“That you’re just the same but brand new.” It’s settles heavily despite the weight being eased just slightly off of him and he swears they could be the only two in that cafe right now.

There’s a glimmer of understanding in their eyes despite them saying “You’re so cryptic.”

(Jiraiya is surely projecting, beyond reaching and jumping to conclusions, he knows this. He also knows hes been pretty close to in love with them since he figured out what goddamn hair color he liked best. But he could never imagine it being reciprocated, let alone entertained. It's a nice thing hes always been good at making things up.)

\------------------------------

“YOU DID _WHAT_?” Tsunade’s voice booms through the phone, Jiraiya holding it away from his ear just in time, setting it to speaker mode to at least protect his hearing, not so much his feelings.

“I really don't wanna say it aga-” “WHAT DO YOU _MEAN_ YOU KISSED ORO?”  
He sinks further into his bed, trying to escape the words being flung at him. He wishes he could disappear right now, face twisting up as the last 3 hours ran in his mind on a painful loop of regret.

“...’was an accident.” He mumbles, remembering another small cafe, overly sweet coffee, a warm hand curling around his arm on the walk home at dusk, a million thoughts racing and then a kiss. Too much force and clumsiness, too much bubbling over at once, the look of shock on their face was torture, but he deserved it, he knew that. His brutish, asshole tendencies carried him this far and all but died, useless and immature, wilting in front of Oro.

He wants to go jump off a cliff and hit every rock on the way down.

“Accident my ass...And you didn't say anything??”

“I just...said I was sorry and left” it was a shitty apology, stumbling out his mouth as he damn near sprinted away from them. And well, maybe it wasn't an accident, but it sure was a mistake.

“Jesus…honestly, I'm the wrong person to call for advice on this, you know what I'm gonna say.”

“Didn't call for advice, I just wanna know the best way to kill myself.”

“Oh, shut up and go talk to them!”

“Tsunade…” She's completely right, in between the half serious insults, she injects truth. It's how they've always talked to each other, tough love to help them get thru the assortment of life shit thrown at them. But mostly because they like shit talking each other.

“I told you don't fucking call me, I always tell you the same thing but you're so hardheaded. Of all the times you don't wanna use your big mouth for something...” Tsunade rips into him

“You’re bullying me.” Tsunade says something along the lines of ‘ _I'll_ _show_ _you_ _bullying_ ’ but it's drowned out by a shrill ping followed by a message taking up the screen of his phone.

‘Tsunade’s, 4pm, tomorrow. To talk.’

It's a simple and terrifying message, wiping every thought from Jiraiyas head.

“I….uhm...they want to talk. Tomorrow.” His voice is suddenly small, dragging a hand over his face. It doesn't feel….right. This isn't what he knows about them. It isn't familiar, so maybe he doesn't really know them at all? His heart sinks, low and hardened.

“Great! Half the problem solved.”

“At your place”

“....you two just won't let me rest, huh?” She groans “I just want a nice, quiet weekend in and you two idiots wanna fight in my living room.”

“I didn't even make the decision.”

“Shut uuuuuuup!” There's shuffling over the line, then a sigh “Please dont fuck this up. Just be honest, for their sake at least.” Her tone is much more serious, Jiraiya looking away from his phone.

“...yeah.” There's a soft, despondent ‘oh god…’ over the line, making Jiraiya huff, burying his face into sheets.

\------------------------------

There's the sounds of a door opening, keys jingling, and Jiraiya having a heart attack as he paces a trench into Tsunade’s living room. He almost makes up his mind to vault over this couch and sprint to hide in Tsunade’s room but he sees Oro, looking surprisingly not furious. And maybe his eyes dip too far to look at a dangerously short red skirt after staring directly at their mouth--it's a soft, gradient pink shade of lipstick today and he's always wondered how they did that--but that's besides the point.

The point is they don't take off their shoes, making a goddamn bee line to him and pushing him with just enough force to sit before he can stutter out a meek Hi.

“Uh.” he tries with absolute intelligence, watching as Oro tosses their bag on the coffee table. Jiraiya is terrified off the shoe thing alone but the bag??? That expensive chunk of leather and probably gold they treat as well as their living, breathing snakes? Being tossed to the side?

Oh he's fucking dead.

“You kissed me.” Their voice and body language gives nothing away to show how they feel but Jiraiya feels something, some emotion pulsing off them and he can do nothing but stare.

“Yeah...I….I’m sorry, I shouldn't have just jumped on you lik-” he starts, trying to piece an apology together from the thousands of ways he's rehearsed it in his head.

“Was it what you expected?”

Jiraiya feels his skull crack in half from how utterly mind breaking that question was.

“.....what?”

“What?” Oro echos with a slight motion of their head.

“ _What_?” He tries again, desperately trying to connect the dots.

“It's a yes or no question. When you kissed me, was it what you expected?”

“Ah…” he watches them, arms crossed as they stood waiting for an answer.

“Well...no. It wasn't-”

“Right.” Oro cuts into them, fluidly slotting a knee between Jiraiyas legs as they knelt down, taking his face in their hands and, yup, kissing him senseless. Or whatever senses he happened to have left.

In the back of Jiraiyas mind, there's some sort of nuclear meltdown occurring, little rational versions of himself trying to get it under control or stop whatever this was. In the forefront however, was a little self indulgent cane toad cheering him on. They're facets of his mind that are always there, deciding how he should handle anything, from everyday tasks to cataclysmic shit like this. And he can only listen to one at a time at any given moment .

And unsurprisingly, the toad almost always wins.

It's all of five seconds filled with shock before he’s pulling them close, a hand curling around a soft, warm thigh and taking a moment to realize they were straddling his leg, Jesus fucking Christ. Another ten seconds to realize they taste sweet, like every egg custard from every cafe they've been to.

It all happens so fast, the feeling of hands, teeth--he finds out Oro is a biter and is unbelievably giddy about it-- and sheer heat between them, it's a dark wave of pleasure washing over Jiraiya, and eventually recedes back to the black sea from where it came. Directly from Oro themself, the same dark waters that have been reaching out to him all this time.

It's the soft tug of his hair and a final bruising kiss that pulls them apart, Oro sitting back in his lap with a soft breath, swiping a thumb along the corner of their mouth, eyes steady yet unfocused as they calmed their breathing.

“Fuck….” is all Jiraiya can breathe out, head falling back to stare up at the ceiling, hands still curled around Oro’s hips.

“Not here.” Oro immediately responds and Jiraiya chokes, sitting up to look at them with a bewildered expression.

“What?” They shrug, hands smoothing down the flyaways of their hair from Jiraiya messily carding through it. “Don't act like you weren't working towards it.”

“I wasn't! Kind of?” Jiraiya denies

“Your hands say something else.” Is their pointed response to Jiraiyas hands absentmindedly moving from their hips to their thighs again, pushing their way up and under the already hiked up hem of the skirt.

“...maybe.” His hands slowly pull away with a pout.

“So was it what you expected?” Their head tilts, and he watches their hair effortlessly fall like a gentle curtain.

“I dunno...maybe third time's the charm?” He smiles sweetly. He...likes this. How much easier this has gotten all of a sudden. No more heart in his throat or spine breaking nervousness. Its just them, together, as they've always been.

“Ok.” Oro says bluntly, pushing away from him and grabbing their bag as he laughs.

“Wait, wait, where’re you going??” He asks in confusion, realizing they're heading to the door.

“...home.” Is all Oro says, giving him an odd look as they pull their skirt back down with a smooth glide of their hands. It's quiet once the door clicks open, then closed, blinking in shock. The toad in his head says that was an interesting way to fix a skirt.

He silently agrees.

“Oh, so you're stupid stupid.” Comes Tsunade's voice from her room, making him jump up as he completely forgot she was there, in her own home. Redness creeps into his face at realizing she probably heard the last ten minutes.“You aren't gonna go after them after finally getting their tongue down your throat? Because I will.” She says nonchalantly, popping a grape into her mouth.

“That’s not funny.” The look he gives her is withering but whenever she jokes about that, taking Oro for herself. It still makes him nervous.

“I'm not trying to be.”

He croaks, freezing up before heading for the door. It's a joke of course, it always has been, like every other one she says, but for some reason that particular one always comes off as strange to him. He doesn't wanna push it, and besides...he kinda wants to see more of Oro after that. More of them outside of a cafe or the few times the three of them meet up. Just...more, is all he thinks, has been thinking since realizing what he wants.

“Wipe your face before you get out there!”

Jiraiya pauses, wiping a hand across his cheek, seeing it come away a soft pink.

Tsunade hears him croak louder outside, down the hall.

**Author's Note:**

> And they had crazy wild sex that night the end. See y'all next update idk when. I'm tryna get faster but I'm a fool so.... and thanks to everyone who left kudos and bookmarked this uwu my heart is full.


End file.
